CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — It’s 9:13 a.m., it’s 32 degrees outside and an overnight front has laid a fresh film of snow on the ground. Illinois, duteously, is back at work after a loss to Indiana the previous night. Actually, everyone has been at it since the film started rolling around 8 a.m., a relatively short while after a leaden effort led to a 19th defeat in this mercurial season. The original plan called for a semi-casual, leg-saving, no-taped-ankles walkthrough to follow the video session. Then Brad Underwood watched that 19th loss again. Then the walkthrough became a 45-minute workout to address some things.

At the moment, and maybe in fact at all moments, these things are not being addressed quickly enough for the Fighting Illini’s 55-year-old coach.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” Underwood bellows as his team drifts on to the floor at the Ubben Basketball Complex. It is early, but it is also, as they say, getting...